University of Bristol Special Collections

Our collections are diverse but concentrate mainly on the archives and history of the University, its academics and students, including buildings in which the University is based, and families who have been involved with these buildings.We also hold one of the most complete collections relating to the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), his father, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849), and his sons Isambard Brunel (1837-1902) and Henry Marc Brunel (1842-1903).On a political front we hold the Library of the National Liberal Club which includes a fine collection of manuscripts relating to the history of the Liberal Party, with a collection of election addresses for all parties covering 1892 to date. We also hold the Don Bateman collection relating to twentieth century Labour History including the Independent Labour Party and the Spanish Civil War.We hold several family and estate archives including the papers of the Paget Family of East Cranmore, Somerset. We hold the papers of the Pinney Family of Dorset, which includes a large amount of material relating to estates in the West Indies, 1650-1995. We also have a number of small caches of estate and legal papers relating to the West Indies.We hold on deposit the editorial files and other papers of the publishers Penguin Books, and a similar cache of materials for the publishers Hamish Hamilton. The Penguin material includes archives of people connected with Penguin such as Allen Lane, Betty Radice, Eunice Frost, and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, along with materials relating to the trial against D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover.We hold a small but well formed collection of manuscript materials relating to the congregation of the Moravian Church in Maudlin Street Bristol, 1760-1893, including their Church Library. We hold the papers of John Addington Symonds, (1840-1893), and papers of his daughters Dame Katharine Furse (1875-1952) and Margaret Vaughan (1869-1925). Along with these collections we hold many smaller collections, the majority of which are listed in the National Register of Archives, and all of which we are happy to answer queries about.